novelBalls on Top
| ← Ch.565 | Ch.567 → |
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
At this moment, the battle sunk into a lull. Balls of Holy Light floated on top of my head, giving this bloody battlefield more of a ritualistic feeling. The Holy Light illuminated my face, making me appear serious and divine.
Yet, I was currently talking about something that made others feel helpless.
"I finally understand why archmages enjoy having a few balls floating on top of their head."
"Easy to attack with? Or as energy storage?"
"You need to constantly spend mana to maintain those balls, so rather than calling them energy storage, they're a constant energy expenditure. As for being easy to attack with? That's also ridiculous. If you leave something with such high power on top of your head, not only do you need to concentrate all the time, you also need to prevent enemies from using techniques to explode them, turning it against you. It would be hilarious if someone was exploded and killed by their own energy balls."
"Then why do so many archmages like having balls hover over them?"
Harloys didn't really understand. Although she didn't personally have this habit, she knew many elf archmages who had the habit of constantly having some energy balls float around their head. And when she asked them about it, they would only smile mysteriously and not answer.
I laughed out loud and looked off into the distance while sighing dramatically, giving off an expression of mysteriousness...
"Of course it's for the sake of... acting pretentious. Don't you think that it looks really cool and amazing to have some balls floating around your head?"
Yep, indeed. Based on my many years of research, the majority of mages who kept some energy balls floating around their head were actually using the balls as an excuse to show off their power level and act cool.
Robes and staves were equipment and weapons, so of course they would focus on functionality the most. The classical designs for such items were already set. There wasn't much more that could be decorated on robes or staves that hadn't been thought of before. Then, how could a mage seem different from every other mage?
How about having some energy balls float over your head then? Back in the day, I knew an archmage who constantly kept ten fireballs around his head, more than enough for a game of pool. I was kind of worried when someone would knock all his balls into the pockets and make him die in an explosion.
What? You're asking me if I had ever been so pretentious before? Impossible, my pathetic control over the elements meant that I was completely incapable of creating energy balls. They would always explode on me before I could finish creating them... Cough, cough, maybe I just revealed too much here. Hey, all youths would suffer from chuunibyou at some time; the more important part was what one could learn while in their chuunibyou period.
What I learned from this was...
"Back when I was studying at the Mage Country, I once had this business plan. I used alchemy to create a magical tool that could maintain a few automatically hovering balls, and then sell this tool to mage acolytes who were incapable of maintaining floating energy balls. You could even pick what color ball you wanted..."
Harloys was absolutely astonished. How could Roland possibly be so shameless? But since this product had never been sold before, it seemed that likely nobody wanted to buy it.
"Ha, of course people would buy it? I simply walked around the market with two floating balls and received several hundred orders. Not only did acolytes want my tool, there were even many mid-level and high-level mages. It would seem that everyone was jealous of how cool the archmages seemed when they floated balls around."
Harloys was rather confused now. She had never seen such a product in the Mage Kingdom before.
"... But on that very same night, I received a dozen death threats that if I dared to sell my product, I would fail in my classes / be expelled / be killed / be fed to the dogs and so on. Those bastard archmages dared to monopolize their energy balls!"
Only archmages were allowed to play with energy balls, not acolytes? Harloys felt her entire worldview being refreshed. Those archmages really knew how to play around.
But now, due to my outstanding ability in Holy Light, I could finally have my image as an archmage with numerous balls floating over my head!
"... Archmages wouldn't know how to use Holy Light..."
The silly cat's retorts really made me want to beat her up as always. Why hadn't she been beaten to death before? Oh, she had already died once.
I summoned a mirror of ice and took a look at myself. Indeed, the Holy Light balls floating above me were different from what I imagined. I looked far more like a Holy Light job class member rather than an archmage. However, I then had a sudden flash of inspiration.
"Come, Light of Salvation."
Two, three, four, and then five balls of light on my head formed a fork shape on top of my head. The Holy Light illuminating my calm face made me appear incredibly divine and solemn.
"Amitabha, my Rulai Divine Palm technique is now complete. Check out the ninth technique, Ten Thousand Buddhas Greeting the Emperor... Go!"
Countless beams of Holy Light instantly illuminated everything. Anything that was demonized was cleansed and undone. This portion of land in the Chaos Abyss was actually lit up so much that it resembled the heavens.
"Ahhh!"
Not only were all the remaining inferno dogmen being swiftly cleansed as they writhed in pain, even the corrupted land of the Chaos Abyss itself was being cleansed. Perhaps this method of using the Light of Salvation was indeed correct.
Traditional Holy Light would be used like a sword, cutting down all Chaos in its path. However, this style was unsuitable for the Light of Salvation as its greatest weakness was the lack of attack power.
However, its penetrative properties made it quite suitable as a power to constantly weaken the enemy with.
In order to further demonstrate this possibility, I had the five balls of light follow me as I walked along.
The lizardmen and inferno dogmen around me were blinded, and then started rolling around on the floor in pain from this light.
It would be impossible for any species living in the Chaos Abyss to escape being demonized. Compared to lizardmen on the surface, the Bloodspear tribe's lizardmen had bloodshot eyes and far more violent tempers. They also had some demonic patches on their skin as a result of living in the Chaos Abyss.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't look at me like that, I'm helping to heal all of you."
Soon, I found another advantage of the Light of Salvation—it was highly energy efficient.
Even a Saint-ranked Holy Knight would have limits on how much Holy Light he could use, especially in a hellish location like the Chaos Abyss. Energy consumption would more than double down here. However, I discovered that maintaining these five balls of Holy Light was actually quite easy for me.
"Although its power is lower, the energy consumption is also lower? Could these be the legendary... energy-saving lights!?"
And so, I thought of a new way to play with them.
"War Angel form!"
Snow-white wings sprouted from my back. Pure Holy Light flowed all through me and directly emanated from my body. This transformation ability that I hadn't used for so long was finally shown off again. I transformed into an ancient War Angel... and then I summoned another five balls of Holy Light!
"Look, twice the number of buddhas!"
"There's no saving you!"
Meanwhile, black dragon Hakas silently flew a few kilometers away. He was still bound by his slave contract and was unable to stray too far away from Roland. Still, the Holy Light made him feel rather uncomfortable as he was also partly demonized.
As for the fact that Roland just revealed his angel form, Hakas could only sigh that the God of Holy Light had become ridiculously blind to allow such a clearly vicious and evil individual to somehow become an angel. However, Hakas couldn't do anything about it.
I could now fly around the Chaos Abyss as if I was in the heavens. No matter where the demons or magical creatures hid, they would automatically start howling in pain and come out on their own while rolling on the floor in pain. I could simply defeat everything without even needing to lift a finger. This actually felt surprisingly nice.
"Ahhh, damned light! Which bastard hurt the magnificent Fistanley! I'm going to tear him apart!"
Alright, maybe I was getting happy too soon. It would seem that I attracted the attention of a more powerful monster.
His voice reached me before I even saw him. With how the ground was shaking, it seemed that he was really large.
Thirty seconds later, I saw the same Berserker Demon from the Onibaba market. He was even larger than before. It would seem that the pain from the Holy Light made him go into his berserk form.
Berserker Demons weren't a particularly high-level species. However, each individual demon's personal level was impossible to measure by the species' standard. Only the demon himself would know about their own evolution. Since this Berserker Demon had survived so long despite being a low-level cannon fodder species with obviously low intelligence, his power level was probably decent.
"... I should add a word of advice to my guidebook on the Light of Salvation. Using it in certain locations could be suicidal, especially if you're in the Chaos Abyss or a Death Plane!"
Judging by how much that Berserker Demon had enlarged by, this was no different from activating a mega taunt ability.
As for me, I was pleasantly surprised. I had just been feeling like I didn't have any decently strong demons as an experimental subject, and now one came right up to me. It seemed that I was quite lucky down here in the Chaos Abyss.
The furious Berserker Demon finally discovered the source of the light. He instantly jumped over a distance of several dozen meters with only a single jump. It seemed that the Berserker Demons' famous charging jump attack was just as powerful as rumored.
"He has some nice physical strength."
The impact of the Berserker Demon's landing created a tornado. Yet, to Fistanley's surprise, his strength and shock wave that matched a giant's was actually easily blocked by the tiny human before him. No matter how much brute force Fistanley tried to use, he was still unable to make his arm budge.
An ordinary demon would have realized that something was wrong with the situation. However, a Berserker Demon whose attack was impeded would only become more berserk. This Berserker Demon's body suddenly expanded yet again as he increased his Strength stat by more than 50%.
"Ohhh, it looks like he took the 'berserk muscle' evolution path."
Berserker Demons had three famous natural talents—self-destruction, berserk muscle, and stink glands. No Berserker Demon with even the slightest shred of intelligence would go focus on self-destruction. Stink glands allowed the Berserker Demon's sweat to become a vicious biological weapon, making its enemies feel like vomiting during melee combat. Stink gland specialty Berserker Demons were like the skunks of the battlefield, stinking up everywhere that they went. Self-destruction and stink glands were the reason why Berserker Demons made for excellent cannon fodder.
Meanwhile, the berserk muscle talent allowed Berserker Demons to increase their blood flow and power up their muscles if they were injured or in a berserk state. This would numb their sense of pain, but it would also have the side effect of lowering their already low intelligence... And judging from how this Berserker Demon had grown so much larger now, his berserk muscle cultivation was quite high.
Also judging from how he was now showing nothing but eyes' whites, his current intelligence level was probably lower than that of a dog.
His fearsome brute strength could easily tear apart any metal weapon, blast through any castle wall, or rip a demon to pieces. Berserker Demons had some of the highest attack power on any battlefield. But as for me, I was actually quite delighted to see how strong he was.
"Such a strong experimental subject. That means I can play more with him."
I spread my wings and gathered light behind my back. A powerful Holy Light began to penetrate through his muscles and dispel his demonized power.
My five balls of Holy Light connected with each other, creating a blinding pillar of light that seemed to light up the entire world.
"Gaahhhhh!"
But unlike the inferno dogmen, the Berserker Demon was actually ignited instantly!
Thick holy flames burned on his body. The Berserker Demon howled in pain through all this golden fire. His flesh, blood, and demonized power were all being cleansed and destroyed.
He wouldn't be able to survive if this continued.
"It would seem that cleansing a pure-blooded demon of the Chaos Abyss will be impossible. I suppose that makes sense as they're fully demonized products of the Chaos Abyss itself. If their demonization is dispelled, there won't be anything left of them."
*Snap!*
I snapped my fingers and turned off four of my five Holy Light balls, greatly weakening the effect. It would be far too much of a pity to kill off such a strong experimental subject so quickly.
"Heeheehee, let me think, should I first cut him up? Or dissect him first?"
| ← Ch. 565 | Ch. 567 → |